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If you could
change your state’s
open records law
just one way, what
would that change
be?
Dianna's response: The Texas Public Information Act should require online (or central office) posting of “super-public” information such as superintendent’s contract, salary, check register, and expenditures of our education tax dollars to benefit private attorneys and lobbyists. This information should be readily available to all taxpayers and citizens without the need for a formal public information request.
Dianna Pharr wins Defender of the American Dream Watchdog Website of the Year Award.
Nanci Wilson of KEYE News wins Defender of the American Dream Media Award.
CMLP Launches New Legal Guide Section on Access to Government Information
April 2008 - Every state has some version of a "Freedom of Information" (FOI) law — sometimes called a "sunshine law" — that governs the public’s right to access state government records. These FOI laws help the public keep track of its government’s actions, from the expenditures of school boards to the governor's decision to pardon prison inmates. For example, in 2003, a parent of a student in Texas, Dianna Pharr, spurred by the financial crisis in her local school district, began filing requests under the Texas Public Information Act to investigate the district's spending and operations. She and other parent volunteers established an online repository for the documents and made them available on a local community website, Keep Eanes Informed. Pharr's efforts received coverage in the local press, and have enabled her community to make informed decisions when dealing with school board proposals.
Transparency
at Eanes ISD
Re: Jan. 19,
2008
editorial “Going online to see
if government is in line.”
I agree
that government, including
public school districts, should
post public information online.
The Eanes school district
continues to resist open
government by refusing to post
the check register on the
district Web site. I have
repeatedly asked the
superintendent and board to
consider this user-friendly and
transparent approach.
In fact, each time I request
this public information, I
specifically state that if the
district will post it, I won’t
request it.
Still, this basic Eanes public
information is available online
only on a citizen Web site,
www.keepeanesinformed.com.
DIANNA PHARR
dpharr@austin.rr.com
Austin
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/opinions/index.html
Interview:
Sunshine Activist Dianna Pharr
Posted: 14 Jan 2008 04:36 PM CST
This is the 13th in our series of interviews with Sunshine Activists from around the country.
Our goal is to interview ordinary citizens who use open records at the state and local level to promote greater awareness of and insight into the local governance.
Today's interview is with Texas activist Dianna Pharr whose website is Keep Eanes Informed. Dianna lives in Austin, Texas.
FBI USES FOIA TO GAIN INFORMATION ON SCHOOL DISTRICTS
April 2008 - The city of El Paso,
the Ysleta Independent School District and the Socorro Independent School District are among local government agencies presented with Freedom of Information requests by the FBI. The FBI asked the government agencies for information to produce a list of their "10 largest monetary purchasing contracts," records obtained by the El Paso Times under the Texas Public Information Act indicate. Kinard declined to say if the information was gathered specifically as intelligence for its public corruption case that has engulfed the county's three largest school districts, the city, the county and El Paso Community College. But he said, "that does not necessarily mean that it can't be used for the public corruption case." Since the public corruption investigation began in 2005, seven people have now pleaded guilty in closed-door hearings in U.S. District Court to federal charges.
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Click here to
read full article
MARCH
2008 - Your request can yield
information that has a real
impact on your community. For
example, in 2003, a parent of a
student in Texas, Dianna Pharr,
spurred by the financial crisis
in her local school district,
began filing multiple requests
under the
Texas Public Information Act
to investigate the district's
spending and operations. She and
other parent volunteers
established an online repository
for the documents she received
and made them available on a
local community website, Keep
Eanes Informed. Pharr's efforts
received coverage in the local
press, and have enabled her
community to make informed
decisions when dealing with
school board proposals.
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"Sunshine Troublemaker" Award - July 2007 |
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Letter to the Eanes ISD board of trustees:
September 2007
From:
Dianna Pharr [mailto:dpharr@austin.rr.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 7:10 PM
To: 'trustees@eanes.k12.tx.us'
Cc: 'Nola Wellman'
Subject: History of Eanes ISD's Refusal to Provide 2003 ADA Facilities
Assessment Review to the Public
September 1, 2007
To: Eanes ISD Board Members
Reference: History of Eanes ISD's Refusal to Provide 2003 ADA Facilities Assessment Review to the Public
Beginning seven years ago, Eanes ISD taxpayers funded several facilities assessment reviews and reports including but not limited to the 2003 ADA SHW Facilities Assessment Review outlining specific ADA violations.
September 2005
Eanes ISD ignored requested access to public information that included reports funded by our tax dollars and related to district facility access for children with disabilities. Eanes ISD administration failed to produce responsive documents, a violation of the Texas Public Information Act.
January 2006
The Eanes ISD superintendent refused a second request for the same information, failing to produce even a single page of responsive documents although many of the documents were super-public according to state law.
Instead the district requested an opinion ruling from the Office of the Attorney to withhold every responsive document including but not limited to the 2003 ADA SHW Facilities Assessment Review.
April 2006
The State of Texas Office of the Attorney General ruled that Eanes ISD must produce the requested public information.
Eanes ISD administration continued to withhold the documents.
August 2006
A taxpayer complaint was submitted to the Travis County Attorney David Escamilla.
December 2006
Subsequent to the intervention of the Travis County Attorney, Eanes ISD administration produced responsive documents including but not limited to the 2003 SHW ADA Facilities Assessment Review.
February 2007
Eanes ISD parents offered to work with Eanes ISD on an ADA Task Force to identify ADA violations and create a list of priorities for the current bond.
April 2007
District representative Bill Bechtol convened the ADA Task Force. When one member informed the group that the ADA reports existed, the entire Task Force specifically requested data, including the most recent ADA facility assessment report, in order to begin their work.
May 2007
At the second of two meetings, District representative Bill Bechtol informed the ADA Task Force that each committee member must pay $90.00 to receive a copy of one report, the 2003 SHW ADA Facilities Assessment Review. A taxpayer submitted a $90.00 check to Eanes ISD the following day. His check was never cashed and he did not receive the report.
Fact
The 2003 SHW ADA Facilities Report provides detailed lists of ADA compliance problems at every Eanes ISD school. The report includes specific information regarding emergency egress problems, playground and recreational field barriers, restroom barriers, and numerous other ADA violations.
To date, Eanes ISD has not provided the 2003 SHW ADA Facilities Assessment Review to the ADA Task Force.
Fact
Eanes administrators have actively and repeatedly withheld this report from stakeholders, and now have paid more consultants to generate more reports.
Comment
As district superintendent, Nola Wellman has an absolute responsibility to the board, the community, and our children to insure that all children can access district programs and facilities including those children with disabilities. Eanes ISD superintendent fought disclosure of this information in every way possible including the expenditure of our education tax dollars with no limit to retain and fund attorneys to battle against taxpayer rights to access this public information and use it to advocate for the children in our district. This denial of information was a denial of our right to be informed and protect the rights of children in our community and district.
I have watched this district repeatedly deny the needs and rights of children with both invisible and visible disabilities. There are many children with disabilities in our school that have been forced into private school because they cannot attend Eanes ISD. Nola Wellman has a responsibility to comply fully with board policy as well as state and federal laws that govern our school district. I allege that she has failed to do so. Further, I am very concerned that Nola Wellman is misrepresenting fact in response to direct questions by board members and witnessed by the public during more than one board meeting.
Request
I request that the Eanes ISD board of trustees consider carefully the actions of Nola Wellman and the resulting denial of children’s rights, community involvement, and spiraling legal costs. Please also consider Texas Administrative Code Title 19, Part 7, Chapter 247 requiring Eanes ISD administrators to comply with certain requirements including the following:
Standard 1.1. The educator shall not knowingly engage in deceptive practices regarding official policies of the school district or educational institution.
Standard 1.7. The educator shall comply with state regulations, written local school board policies, and other applicable state and federal laws.
Standard 3.2. The educator shall not knowingly treat a student in a manner that adversely affects the student's learning, physical health, mental health, or safety.
Standard 3.3. The educator shall not deliberately or knowingly misrepresent facts regarding a student.
Standard 3.4. The educator shall not exclude a student from participation in a program, deny benefits to a student, or grant an advantage to a student on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, national origin, religion, or family status.
Sincerely,
Dianna Pharr
Eanes ISD parent and taxpayer
Published September 12, 2007 - Letter to the Editor - Westlake Picayune newspaper
Dear Editor,
On
August 29th, parent volunteers of the Eanes ISD ADA Task Force asked the
Board of Trustees to appoint a member to serve on a Task Force to work
positively and effectively with the district to remove architectural
barriers and eliminate ADA compliance violations dating back to the
1990's.
In a statement during Open Forum, the
Task Force spokesperson told the Board of Trustees that many serious and
urgent access problems exist across Eanes facilities, including but not
limited to children in wheelchairs not evacuated during fire drills,
children blocked from recreational fields, and children excluded from
recess due to architecture and that eight months of attempts to work
with the Superintendent had been unsuccessful, as administrators had
refused to provide the Task Force with documents, refused to schedule
meetings, and reneged on the mutually agreed upon deadline.
Trustee Robert Durkee asked Superintendent Nola Wellman if this was true, and she said, "no."
Brick and mortar facts say otherwise, as
does the 2003 SHW Facilities Assessment Review (available on
www.keepeanesinformed.com.) The district fought hard
to withhold this report, and released it only after formal complaints to
the Attorney General and County Attorney. In this study, ADA violations
at every Eanes school were outlined in detail and budgeted for repair.
Why five years have passed without them being addressed is another
question.
Removing
barriers that segregate children
should be the highest and most urgent priority for the current $53
million bond, as it is an issue of safety, legal compliance, and direct
instructional/curricular support.
Parents and taxpayers should not accept anything less than Exemplary
status when it comes to providing access for all children. These
problems have gone decades without being fixed and real children have
been affected by them for far too long. The time is here. And so is the
money.
Your action is needed! Please email (or
call) trustees at www.trustees.eanes.k12.us and tell them you support
the ADA Task Force and Eanes ADA compliance as an urgent priority and
attend the Board of Trustees Work Study Session September 17 at 6:30
p.m., during which this issue and the bond in general will be addressed
Dianna Pharr
Austin, Texas
In the News - September 2007
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The trouble leading up to HB 2564 began in June 2003, when two parents from Eanes Independent School District, Dianna Pharr and Susan Bushart, began filing public records requests because of their concerns about the district’s spending priorities and budget cuts. They published the documents and their findings online.
“It definitely started out as a personal issue for me,” Pharr said. “I began to look at the district’s priorities and then determine whether they were in compliance with things such as the Americans With Disabilities Act. And I found, in my opinion, that they weren’t.”
Pharr had seen “serious irregularities” in Eanes’ spending priorities, which she characterized as “athletic spending with no holds barred.”
Pharr had questions about why the district bought artificial turf for athletic fields and a Jumbotron while complaining of a budget crisis and being unable to meet the needs of its special education students, and why Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had to pay to use school facilities while private sports teams did not.
“The more I requested, the more I knew I needed to request,” Pharr said.
Pharr was motivated to create her Web site, www.keepeanesinformed.com, to make the public records she had received readily accessible to the public.
Pharr estimates that she makes about 50 records requests per year, and said that much of what she continues to address in Eanes are the same issues she had four years ago.
“There are children in wheelchairs who don’t have a fire exit,” she said. “There are children in wheelchairs who don’t have access to the playground. But the school is considering a covered football field so these athletes wouldn’t be hot when they work out.”
Pharr does not beat around the bush when she talks about the origins of HB 2564.
“This bill was targeted at me,” she said.
“From the very beginning they told me I was harassing them,” even at the beginning when all she wanted were the agenda packets for the school board meetings, Pharr said.
Almost half of the total time the district spent on public records requests in the past year was for Pharr, according to Eanes’ Public Information Act logs.
Pharr maintains that all of her requests fall under the law, and that nothing she has done could be construed as abuse of the Public Information Act.
“I have paid every time they have asked me to pay,” Pharr said. “I’ve never not picked up information I requested — quite the contrary, I begged them for it.”
One month after Pharr launched her Web site, the district released confidential medical information from her son’s records at a board meeting, to the public and to the media.
After attempts to resolve the matter at the district level failed, Pharr took her case to the U.S. Department of Education and won her complaint for noncompliance with the Family Education Records Protection Act against Eanes.
“You’ll pay the price that all whistleblowers pay. There will be damage to yourself, and to your family,” Pharr said. “If they had to make a law to stop the flow of public information in this district, then I must have been darn effective.”
In addition, Pharr has filed a formal complaint with the Travis County attorney regarding the Eanes Independent School District’s failure to release records, after determination by the state attorney general that they were required to do so. She also has a pending complaint from a board meeting in February that allegedly went into an improper closed session in violation of state open meetings laws.
How a school district responds to requests for public information says much about trust and confidence. article
When everything is going right,
we rarely question the operations and expenditures of our school districts. There
were many years when I simply baked cookies for the teacher appreciation
luncheon, volunteered in my child’s elementary school, served on various
committees and wrote an annual check to the booster club. I did not know the
location of the central administration building of my school district much less
the board room. I had more than hope ... I had faith
... in my public school district.
Sometimes in life, our perspective changes without warning, sometimes so
dramatically that we are moved to action.
When our community began its public discussion of our district’s budget “crisis”
in 2003, I began asking Eanes ISD for basic public information that was
not readily available from the district or in any other venue, seeking information to answer
questions about spending and other topics, hoping to increase the public’s
awareness and understanding of proposed cuts to academic or other programs.
Many in our community questioned our district's abundant athletic spending and
its apparent absence from the evolving lists of proposed budget cuts.
Community members and teachers provided the ideas for my information gathering
efforts. Afraid of retaliation, many feared submitting their own requests
to the district. "Can you get the board minutes and agendas?" "Are the
coach’s salaries and stipends public information?" "Are disabled children
appropriately identified and served in the gifted program?" "Are we charging
private athletic clubs to use our public facilities?" "Who benefits from the
money generated by the Jumbotron?" "How safe are our school campuses?" "Does
the district comply with federal law ... are our school facilities accessible as
required by ADA ... playgrounds, stages, and restrooms?" "Are emails
between and among the superintendent and board members public information?"
"Have the board members completed required conflict of interest forms?"
As I reviewed documents related to the operations and expenditures of our
district, I formed a perspective that was truly troubling. I was also
shocked by the inability or unwillingness of the district to provide information
in an efficient and effective manner.
When my school district refused my offer as a volunteer to post the public information to the official district website, I created my own website and posted the public information without editorial comment. Our community library supported open government and reserved a portion of the reference shelves for hard copies of the information. The library also linked www.keepeanesinformed.com to their site for easy online reference. I recognized that all who reviewed public information would have varying perspectives. Information is the essential first step to action - all sorts of actions. I hoped that others would use the site’s information to learn, form, and then communicate their own opinions regarding the policy, practice and priorities of our school district.
Almost immediately after I published my website, my focus was diverted. In November 2003, the Eanes ISD board published my young son's confidential information including his medical information and released it to the public in writing during a board meeting. As always, I first attempted to resolve this matter within the school district. Eanes ISD retained an outside attorney to represent the district. I represented my son pro se. When the Eanes ISD administration and then board denied my complaint, I submitted a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. Again, the district retained attorneys to battle my child's privacy rights. I represented my son pro se. In January 2005, when the agency ruled against the district and found that it did not comply with FERPA law, Eanes ISD could have simply complied with the federal law, protected children, and changed their policy and procedure - at no cost to the district. Instead the district again retained attorneys to appeal the adverse finding. Again, I represented my son (and therefore every other child whose records are maintained by public schools) pro se. Again, in March 2007, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed its finding against Eanes ISD. I did not sue the school district for damages. Instead, I followed administrative complaint processes in an effort to convince Eanes ISD to comply with federal law created to protect children. A point to ponder: the district described the release of my child's confidential information as "inadvertent." Yet our district leadership chose to retain tax-funded attorneys to battle my child's privacy rights. Inadvertent?
I
have learned much from my interactions with Eanes ISD. The work
was both difficult and profoundly illuminating. When I enrolled my
children in the Eanes ISD, I believed what I had heard - that Eanes ISD would
educate and protect my children. I did not question
the status quo or the decisions of those in charge. That was a mistake.
Trust. Confidence. School district lingo.
"It's for the children." When public school districts spend our tax
dollars to retain attorneys and lobbyists to withhold our public information, and
battle against our children's rights, trust and confidence is impossible and
children are hurt. Taxpayers deserve value for each tax dollar spent by the
adults in our school systems. Teachers and parents have the right to readily access public
information reflecting the priorities and operations of our school districts ... without fear of
retaliation. However, more importantly, all of our children have the right to be safe
in school and fully access the district's facilities and programs. We all have the right to
trust those in charge.
EdNews.org - The Internets #1 source for Education News and ...
Dianna Pharr Columnist EdNews.org When everything is going right, we rarely question the operations and expenditures of our school districts. ...
Austin American Statesman articles and editorial - Excerpts only - To access full article contact the Statesman
Editorial
Praise for moms who put information law to good use
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, February 16, 2004
It is too little understood that the Texas Public Information Act is designed to let average citizens know what their state and local governments are doing.
Open records and open meetings often reach the public view only when the media make them issues. Or when a city council, school board, state agency or other official body locks the doors and refuses to accept the fact that they are creations of, work for and are paid by the people of Texas.
But the Public Information Act is just that, a law that gives Texans the right to know what their government is doing and how it's spending their money. That's why it was heartening to read an article by American-Statesman reporter Kathy Blackwell that focused on a Web site, www.keepeanesinformed.com, created to offer detailed information about the Eanes Independent School District.
Two parents of Eanes students, Dianna Pharr and Susan Bushart, took up the challenge and are using the Public Information Act to let parents, taxpayers and others know what's up in Eanes. They attend the meetings, follow the intricacies of the budget and post the information and their analysis on the Web site.
Pharr and Bushart began their effort because they wanted to understand how the school board was budgeting its tax revenue, particularly as it relates to the interests of their children. But the site has expanded into many different areas, including the possibilities of Eanes closing an elementary school and more layoffs.
These mothers are motivated, dedicated and willing to give of their money, time and energy to make the often opaque, always arcane education system understandable. School officials usually say they want parental and public input, but anyone who has run into a school bureaucracy quickly realizes that is more rhetoric than truth.
Any effort that shines light on the education process is welcome, and Pharr and Bushart should be thanked for their devotion to a project with so many benefits for Eanes parents and taxpayers. Residents of other school districts can learn from these dedicated parents, too.
As Pharr and Bushart found, it takes a lot of hard work and no small amount of money to do the job right. The only reward is the knowledge that they are performing a public service, and hundreds of people they'll never know appreciate it.
Eanes moms start Web site
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, February 9, 2004
When two mothers couldn't find the Eanes school district information they wanted on the Internet, they created their own Web site.
Dianna Pharr and Susan Bushart had no experience in Web design, but a few months ago they launched the site www.keepeanesinformed.com. Already, the site contains a wealth of information -- from how the district spends its money to the minutes of board meetings -- including the results of open records requests the women filed last year.
"Our goal is simply to do this: to provide the community with the opportunity to see the information so that they can form their own perspective," Pharr said. "It may be different from ours. But they have the right, they have the desire, to have the information. And you can't be involved unless you have the information."
Pharr and Bushart considered calling their Web site "How did you get that.com."
They began filing open-records requests for the minutes of past board meetings, budget comparisons and athletic spending records.
Pharr is highly visible. She serves on the board of several campus and district committees and attends the regular board meetings and the more informal board committee meetings, which are often held during the day. Since filing the bulk of their open-records requests last summer, Pharr and Bushart have spent about 40 hours a week organizing the information, going to meetings and updating the Web site, which they started in November.
"It's been a full-time job for both us," said Pharr, who is a stay-at-home mom.
Bushart, who is an artist, has put her work aside to help Pharr. As a breast cancer survivor, "I'm very picky about what I spend my time on," she said.
Pharr said other parents and teachers were amazed at the information she obtained, such as athletic spending records and budget comparisons.
"How did you get that?" was a common refrain, she said.
"It just became very clear that people wanted the information," said Pharr, who has become an open-records pro. "I was getting e-mails from parents, from community members and from teachers asking me if I could get them this information."
While Pharr attends the meetings, Bushart organizes the records they get from the district. She gave 18 volumes of Eanes information to the Westbank Community Library, which keeps the hard-bound notebooks in its reference section.
"The information is just information; it's not their analysis of it," said library director Beth Fox. "I think in a situation like this it would have been very easy, very tempting to make judgments."
Collecting the records meant mastering the Texas Public Information Act and spending more than $1,000 in photocopying fees, including $387 for last summer's requests for information on athletic spending. Pharr and Bushart appealed to school board members to waive the summer fees, which is permitted under state law if "providing the copy of the information primarily benefits the public."
The trustees denied the waiver request. Bushart said they asked for a fee waiver only for the athletic spending records because several people had requested similar information at open board meetings.
Parents as partners
Two weeks ago, Gov. Rick Perry unveiled a plan requiring school districts to make it easier for parents to understand school finances.
"I believe if taxpayers are going to foot the bill, they are entitled to look at every item on the receipt," he said.
Averett said that educators should think of parents as partners. She pointed to the Austin school district's Customer Service Initiative, which trains employees to respond quickly to the public and other departments. She said a school district is like a busy sandwich shop with a line out the door.
"They want help, and they want partners, not parents standing in line," she said. "They want people jumping over the counter making sandwiches."
Compared with its neighbors, though, the Austin district is more accessible. Officials broadcast regular board meetings, budget workshops and some special meetings on television and online. The communications department churns out news releases for local media and keeps the Web site up-to-date. District officials have also hired an ombudsman -- a new position -- to serve as a liaison to the public.
Pharr and Bushart say they will keep updating and improving their site.
"There are a lot of parents who don't go to board meetings," Bushart said. " I don't want them to show up the next year and find out that, boom, the program they enjoyed is gone."
Some officials don't like to let in the sunshine - (07.04.2005 - Austin American-Statesman)
Public access to government meetings and records is the law in Texas, but it's not always accepted easily. Some public bodies and officials react to open government inquiries like vampires to daylight …
In Westlake, Eanes school officials, feeling besieged by parents who pepper them with requests for information, have not responded well. Officials have objected to releasing the documents and supported a bill by the community's state representative, Todd Baxter, to charge higher fees for anyone seeking more than 50 pages a month. The bill died.
Eanes Superintendent Nola Wellman argued that the open records authors never intended for the school district to bear the cost of providing records. But Eanes officials could mitigate those costs by putting the records on the Internet or otherwise making them easily accessible. Instead, they chose to fight and pay huge legal fees.
Not a reporter? You can still request to see public records - (07.04.2005 - Austin American-Statesman)
Individuals willing to tackle the government — any government — usually have a flame in them that burns hotter than in most people. It takes enormous time, effort and, sometimes, money to take on city hall or a state legislature. But the most effective tools for the willing are the freedom of information laws. They guarantee the public has access to meetings and records, though official compliance is often spotty and can be downright defiant.
Many ordinary citizens, and more than a few government officials, think the FOI laws serve only to help the press. But businesses and Joe Citizen request government documents as often as the press.
Someone who regularly monitors a government body or frequently requests public documents can be quickly branded a nuisance. Too many Texas officials have a narrow view of their public trust and think the public ought to keep its nose out of government business. Those who don't can be a bother.
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Media Coverage of www.keepeanesinformed.com:
Eanes
boosts efforts to protect students'
confidentiality
Austin American Statesman
The Eanes school district is re-evaluating how it handles confidential student information in light of a complaint filed by one of the district's most vocal -- and controversial -- watchdogs. [ View Article ] Oct 9, 2004, 08:38
Anonymous e-mail targeting moms hits Eanes in-boxes Open Records : An anonymous e-mail attacking two mothers of Eanes school district students has the tightknit Westlake community abuzz. The e-mail, whose author claims to be an Eanes mom and writes under the alias "Mickey Mouse," criticizes Susan Bushart, an Eanes parent, for a grievance Bushart had filed against the principal at Hill Country Middle School. Comment: I tagged this article as Open Records Abuse when we linked to it last week. I received an email from Dianna Pharr challenging my use of the word "abuse". She reminds me that she has followed the law and feels her requests are reasonable and warranted therefore not abuse. I agree and removed the "abuse" tag. I apologize Dianna, I should let the readers decide. - Thanks for your comments - js Oct 4, 2004, 07:00 Click here: Emails |
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Ohio puts teacher misconduct data online
Published on Friday Nov 02, 2007
A new state Web site listing 1,700 educators who were reprimanded for misconduct, including cases where teachers physically or sexually abused students, is intended to make classrooms safer, education officials said.
The Ohio Department of Education posted the database Thursday, naming teachers, coaches, administrators and other licensed educators who were investigated and reprimanded by state officials.
The state had promised to create the Web site after The Columbus Dispatch reported last month that there were widespread disciplinary problems, including abuse of children, assault and theft, among working teachers and that the information was not easily available to the public.
The newspaper also reported that the state Education Department did not always notify school districts about reprimanded teachers, so some superintendents had unknowingly hired teachers with histories of misconduct.
The Web site includes newly revealed cases on more than 40 educators who were issued written reprimands and allowed to keep their licenses. Some cases included students who were kissed, shoved, hit with a yardstick, or otherwise treated with excessive force by teachers.
The Education Department can punish educators for "conduct unbecoming" the profession in a variety of ways, including written reprimands and permanently stripping a teaching license.
"The new Educator Conduct Search tool provides access to a database of the small subset of educators _ less than 1 percent _ subjected to disciplinary actions since the Office of Professional Conduct was created in 1999," State Superintendent Susan Zelman said in an e-mail to school superintendents.
The database doesn't provide any information on unfounded allegations or educators currently under investigation by the state. Teachers unions had expressed concern that making more information public would spread false accusations that could ruin careers.
The Web site lists only cases in which state officials have confirmed misconduct and taken action. It names the school district where the educator worked and gives a basic description of the wrongdoing, such as "conviction for sexual battery" or "inappropriate relationship with a student."
"It's a significant step in the direction of assuring school district personnel have clean records," said David Laurenzi, president of the Buckeye Association of School Administrators and superintendent of Independence schools, near Cleveland. "It will help make classrooms safer."
Bill Mason, a former assistant superintendent for Newark schools, said the Web site has flaws. It doesn't provide enough detail about offenses that led to written reprimands, he said.
Ohio education officials crafted the Web site after reviewing online information released by Florida, South Carolina and Vermont on teacher misconduct.
All three states provide more detail about a teacher's misconduct than Ohio does. For example, Florida's database includes a link to case documents, including the original complaint.
Zelman said the Ohio database is a work in progress that will be updated and enhanced.
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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
Wimberley superintendent receives $200,000 retirement payment
Marian Strauss resigned with four years left on five-year contract
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
STAFF
Thursday, July 19,
2007
WIMBERLEY — Wimberley Superintendent Marian Strauss will receive a $200,000 payment from the school district in exchange for her early retirement. Strauss retired Monday with
four years left on her five-year contract. The move comes after a group of Wimberley residents urged the board to fire Strauss in March for what they said was her emphasis on athletics over academics, missteps in two failed bond votes, unwillingness to listen to those with different points of view and low teacher salaries. Full Article Here